


A World Torn By Strings

by adastreia_writes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Action/Adventure, Advanced Technology, Alternate Universe- Utopia/Dystopia, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Hurt Lance (Voltron), Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Heavy Angst, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, I'll probably add tags as I go, Kinda, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-21
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-09-01 08:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8616811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adastreia_writes/pseuds/adastreia_writes
Summary: "The Puppet Show System was established by the new officials sent in our country after World War Four, during which we were freed and taken under the wings of the Allies, in a desperate attempt to help us get back on our feet after being enslaved for three hundred years. It prevented an upcoming economical crisis, assisted in becoming a developed country and brought order out of the chaos that reigned all over."That's what they were taught since they were kids. And, all in all, Lance liked what he'd learnt about the Puppet Show System in History and Political Sciences. That was, until he experienced it firsthand through his boyfriend, Keith.





	

Keith didn't remember his parents. He was but a little baby when he was left at the doorstep of the  _ Lioness  _ orphanage, with nothing more than a blanket and a note that had only five words written on it with haste: 

 

_ Never love anything too much.  _

 

And that was it. When he was old enough, his caretaker at the  _ Lioness,  _ Ruby, had given him the little note, yellowed and faded from time. The words had bit in him like a viper bites into its victim and releases its venom; his own parents had so little love for him that they had reached the point of not only abandoning him, but making sure their only message to their son emphasized it. Yet still, even with the dysphoria and the disgust that boiled in the pits of his belly every time he so much as glanced at the paper, he never could find it in himself to throw it away. Instead, he turned it into the first skeleton in his closet. 

 

The words haunted him throughout his childhood, and, unknowingly, he started to live by them. He went from foster home to foster home, never settling down with a family because he always seemed distant towards his new parents. He never really formed any deep relationships, not because he didn't want to, but because he felt unable to. It was as if he thought that he wasn't meant for affection. He hadn't even realized he had been building a great wall between himself and the rest of the world until he finally reached middle school and he learned about the Puppet Show System. It was then when he finally understood what that note really meant. 

 

His teacher had walked into class just as she would every other day. Keith would have never suspected that what he would learn that day was going to change everything. 

“Now, kids,” she had said with an unnerving smile that had sent chills down Keith’s spine, “Today’s class will be very important, so I want your undivided attention. We're doing The Puppet Show System.”

 

At the time, the name held no meaning behind it for Keith. At the time, it seemed like just another thing he would have to learn for school. At the time, he was ignorant. Ignorance truly was bliss. 

 

The Puppet Show System. That day in class, Keith thought that whoever had established it was sick. How couldn't he? A system that divided people in the ones in control and the ones under control was simply cruel. The Puppeteers and the Marionettes, they called them. Fancy terms always seemed to be able to make horrifying things sound nice. His parents’ note, for the first time, made sense. 

 

_ Never love anything too much. It might be taken from you. _

 

However, it wasn't long before he started to see the logic behind it. Ever since the System was established, crime rates had dropped to zero, the economy blossomed and there were no internal conflicts. If anything, no one could deny that the System had brought peace in the society. Some people, Keith had realized, could throw that peace off balance. He supposed that was why they were turned into the Marionettes, rendered mindless through the wiping of their memories and personality, with the responsibility of leading their lives passed over to their Puppeteers. It could be seen as a very heartless way to go about it, but it was merciful at the same time; they weren't brutally murdered, instead given a new life that would rather benefit the society. At least, that's what they were taught, and in the end, it was all math, and he always had had a more mathematical mindset. 

 

Keith didn't know whether he was a Puppeteer or a Marionette. No one knew what they were, not until their twentieth birthday. Sometimes more, sometimes less, if they were branded Marionettes. Supposedly, for the government to brand you a Puppeteer, you needed a certain set of skills (that, again, no one knew what they were. The public was awfully kept in the dark about the Puppet Show System) and you were given twenty years to develop them. If you didn't, you were scratched off as a Marionette and that was it. You were left at the mercy of someone else’s hands. 

 

At fifteen, he was mortified at the possibility of being a Puppeteer. At sixteen, he had his first crush; an older boy named Shiro. The feelings passed as soon as they came, but as he befriended Shiro and his friends, Matt and Pidge, the creeping feeling of anxiousness started eating him away and he felt that maybe, just maybe, he could be a Puppeteer. At seventeen, he found out that Matt was Shiro’s Marionette, and he decided he didn't really care what the government would write him off as. He had no family to miss him, and if he ever turned out to be a Marionette, it couldn't be that bad if Matt was anything to judge by. At eighteen, two peculiar things occurred: Shiro and Matt disappeared, and he fell in love.

 

Two new people had come into town to study just a few weeks after Takashi Shirogane and his Marionette were reported missing; those were Hunk Garett, an engineering prodigy, and Lance McClain, a simple guy trying desperately to become a pilot in the Air Force. Hunk, the golden hearted guy that he was, had met and befriended Pidge in no time, thus befriending Keith too. And right after Hunk, Lance had waltzed right into his life, turning it upside down. 

 

Admittedly, Keith hadn't been at his best back then. Shiro and Matt’s disappearance had taken a toll on him; Shiro had been the first person to actively seek out his friendship, even when he tried to push him away, the first one to accept him when he came out as gay. He had never been one to shun and judge, showing understanding and not making it awkward when he found out that Keith used to have a crush on him, and he had always been there to lend a helping hand. And then there was Matt, always excited and eager to help everyone with their school work, kind and caring in every aspect, and Keith knew that he was just a Marionette, that Shiro was the one that really controlled his actions, but he couldn't help but miss him just as much. For weeks, his parents’ words echoed in his head, taunting him, screaming ‘ _ I told you so _ ’ and laughing with glee at his misery. His grades had started dropping, he had gotten involved in more fights than he had in years, he'd lost his job and he had risked expulsion more than twice. In all honesty, it was a miracle that he'd managed not to flunk his first year in uni, and Pidge just couldn't stop reminding him every day. 

 

And in that dark ocean of confusion and pain he was drowning, Lance came in like a much needed lifeguard to save him. Okay, so maybe that sounds a bit too flattering compared to what really happened; Keith was lost, drifting further and further away from his life, and Lance had -quite ungracefully, as a matter of fact- crushed into it through a car accident and an abundance of snide remarks. Albeit, it had been mostly Keith’s fault but who cares about semantics?

 

In his defense, Keith was very absorbed in what he was doing; Shiro and Matt’s disappearance had plagued his mind ever since he had heard about it, because it simply didn’t add up. Shiro had no reason to take his Marionette and go, he had a family, friends, a promising career. It just didn’t make sense. Which was why Keith had to go all McGyver and investigate further. Which, then, led to him riding his bike way over speed limit and crashing on a car. Said car belonging to the one and only Lance McClain. 

 

No one had gotten as hurt as they could have been; Keith had broken his wrist and he had some minor cuts over his right eyebrow, while Lance had broken his leg. Considering the possibility of death, their injuries were nothing. Lance, however, as Keith later learned, tended to overdramatize things. Thus, his two days in the hospital rooming with the human embodiment of annoyance had began. In the beginning, it was unbearable. Lance would complain about everything and his favorite phrase to say had apparently been “It’s the McMullet’s fault” at the time. Not to mention the very unfortunate loudness that came along with all the complaints (yet another trait of his that Keith would come to adore later in his life). But then, in the depths of the night, when Keith would think about the case he was trying to solve, lost in the maze of his mind, and Lance couldn’t sleep since his cast was an inconvenience to say the least, they seemed to reach an understanding. Lance started talking to Keith, telling him about his life; his family, his friends, his dreams. And after the initial impatience with him, Keith began to actually listen, and as he did, a new light was shed on that obnoxious guy he had the misfortune to crash into with his motorcycle. He found admirable how he could bear to let so many people so close to his heart, how he risked losing everything, and all that without seeming to worry a bit. He also found it incredibly inconsiderate of him to risk having so many people hurt in the chance of him being a Marionette. 

 

But Lance was happy. His family was happy. His friends were happy. And Keith _wanted_ that. He wanted to let more people in. He wanted to love and he wanted to be loved. He always had, but those two nights he had spent with the Lance had awakened that need; and it had fueled his drive to find Shiro and Matt. So, when he got out of the hospital with a healing arm in a cast, he was determined to do everything in his power to get his own friends back and follow Lance’s example, even if he never came across the Cuban boy again. 

 

He didn't expect to find Lance sitting with Pidge and Hunk for lunch the very next day. 

 

He didn't expect the rocky friendship, full of bantering and rivalry, that blossomed out of them.

 

He didn't expect to become part of the bright world that Lance had described to him back at the hospital.

 

He didn't expect to open his own heart to him.

 

He didn't expect to care.

 

He didn't expect to fall in love. 

 

He definitely didn’t expect to find himself gripping on a camera with shaking fingers, tears staining his cheeks and sobs racking his body as fear, regret and grief made his heart hammer against his ribcage. Nor being locked in a pod, grasping for words to say before it was too late. 

 

No, he didn’t expect that. He should have, though. It  _ was  _ his twentieth birthday, after all.

 

_ “God, Lance, I’m so, so sorry. I… Fuck, no, NO, NOT YET! NOT YET, SHIT, STOP, NO, NO, N-!”  _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Okay so my summaries suck so if you somehow found your way in this fic, congrats! I'm the writer of this shipwreck and I welcome you to my very angsty Klance fic, where we can cry together. I'm in the middle of midterms right now so updates will be very sporadic for some time, but hopefully I'll manage to get through this story before I turn ninety. Also! This fic is NOT betaed or edited. I don't have enough time to edit the chapters, but once the story's over, I'm probably go over it again to correct any mistakes (that will probably be in abundance since English isn't my mother language). Anyways, you can always drop a comment and tell me what you think. Enjoy!


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